38 Yemeni Mps Want Stockholm Agreement Scrapped

Thirty-eight Yemeni lawmakers urged President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi on Thursday to scrap the Stockholm Agreement.

The MPs in a statement asked Hadi to direct the army to "liberate" what is remaining of the coastal city of Hodeidah and "to move all the military garrisons in the rest of the provinces toward liberating the capital Sana'a."

The MPs said the move is a result of the Houthi militia's repudiation of all commitments to the agreement and its continued bombing of cities and residential neighborhoods in Hodeidah, Marib, Al-Dhali', Shabwah, Taiz, Al-Bayda and other cities.

"There is no option to deal with the intransigence of the Houthi militia other than putting to an end its hopeless coup by (pursuing) a military resolution and restoring the state," according to the statement.

The Yemeni presidency and Houthi group have yet to respond to the statement.

Government representatives and Houthi rebel leaders held UN-brokered talks in Stockholm in December 2018 that yielded a cease-fire deal and the swapping of prisoners in Hodeidah.

Besides occasional prisoner swap deals the Stockholm deal has achieved little progress on the ground.

Yemen has been engulfed by violence and chaos since 2014, when Iran-aligned Houthi rebels overran much of the country, including the capital, Sanaa.

A Saudi-led coalition aimed at reinstating the Yemeni government worsened the situation, causing one of the world's worst man-made humanitarian crises, with 30 million people, accounting for 80% of the population, needing humanitarian assistance and protection.

*Writing by Ibrahim Mukhtar -